I am kicking off my first post for the 2022 mini Christmas stocking drive for Warmth for Warriors. Warmth for Warriors (W4W) organization is again requesting help to crochet, knit, or sew mini Christmas stockings for the troops. Stockings should be 6 inches long and any pattern style or color is accepted. Stockings that are a little smaller or larger are okay too.
The miniature stockings will be filled at W4W Headquarters with soaps, toiletries, and candies for overseas to our troops as a little Christmas gifts. The little stockings filled with goodies are a wonderful way to say thank you to our troops and give them a little Christmas cheer during the holidays.
These stockings were all crocheted using my free BLO mini Christmas stocking pattern.
Last year the W4W Christmas stocking drive received 4072 in stockings! We are hoping at least to reach the mark again or better in 2022. Below is my first full batch of stockings for the 2022 drive.
If you are interested in helping with our drive this year, please come join us over at
Warmth for Warriors (W4W) is once again having a hat drive for our troops and Veterans. Wool hats are used overseas and other blends of yarn hats are used stateside for our Veterans in hospitals, other VA facilities and outreach programs. Warmth for Warriors needs and accepts hats all year long. Here is the link to the 2022 hat drive that I am heading up.
Last year W4W received 2852 wool hats and 2074 in acrylic hats. We are excited to start crocheting and knitting hats for this year’s drive. Here is my first batch of hats that I just mailed off to W4W headquarters. You can also find W4W on Facebook here. Need a hat pattern? Check out our hat pattern page here for lots of ideas and free patterns.
Just wrapping up my Christmas in July stockings for Warmth for Warriors. Here is the group of stockings I have crocheted. These are all about 6 inches long and will be filled with little goodies for the troops for Christmas.
We will continue to make stockings for Warmth for Warriors until November. So if you’d like to help us out, come visit our Warmth for Warriors group here. We also make hats for our troops all year long and would love to have more help.
A special thank you to all the people who joined in our Christmas in July event at Good Things Together. We had a fun and successful event in support of our troops.
Congratulations to Lisi aka KnitnArnd who won
Well it is July and we are kicking off our Christmas in July theme. We are once again promoting mini stocking-making for Warmth for Warriors over at the Good Things Together group on Ravelry.
Each year we host a Christmas is July event for handcrafted stockings that will be filled at W4W Headquarters with soaps, toiletries, and candies for overseas to our troops as a little Christmas gifts. The little stockings filled with goodies are a wonderful way to say thank you to our troops and give them a little Christmas cheer during the holidays.
Here are some patriotic mini Christmas stockings I crocheted using the cuffed stocking pattern with the fold-over option. You can find more of my free crochet Christmas patterns here.
Please join us in supporting our troops and making mini Christmas stockings this July. There will also be a prize for all participants in the Christmas in July event. Anyone who makes even one stocking for the event, will be entered in a random prize drawing for
I just had to follow-up on my Christmas in July stocking making. I crocheted 17 mini stockings in July for the Warmth for Warriors. We are having a stocking-along event for them over at Ravelry at the Good Things Together group. We are having so much fun and accomplishing so many stockings that we have decided to extend the event until August 8.
So it’s not too late to join in on the fun of crafting mini stockings for the troops. Plus there is even a prize that you have a chance to win should you participate. You just simply need at least one stocking to be entered for the prize drawing of a free pattern. Click here
It’s time again for another Christmas in July stocking drive for Warmth for Warriors. We are once again making mini Christmas stockings for the troops and sending them in to be filled with little items for Christmas gifts for our soldiers through Warmth for Warriors (W4W).
Each year the miniature stockings are filled at W4W Headquarters with soaps, toiletries, and candies for our troops for Christmas. The little stockings filled with treats are a wonderful way to say thank you to our troops and give them a little Christmas cheer during the holidays. We also need donations of the little hotel sized soaps, shampoos, chapsticks and other small items for stuffing the stockings.
Good Things Together over at Ravelry is hosting the special Christmas in July event. More details including how you can participate and win a prize can be found here.
You can crochet, knit, sew, weave, or loom any Christmas stocking for our troops. We try and aim for the Christmas stockings to be about 6 inches in length. But a little bigger or smaller is fine too. Here is a link to some free patterns should you need some project ideas for making stockings. Be aware that our deadline this year for arrival at W4W headquarters is
These last few weeks, I have been busy crocheting more hats for the Warmth for Warriors annual hat drive. These hats were crocheted using the free Red Heart Ridged Hat Pattern. I first saw this hat on a Red Heart yarn wrapper and really liked the look of the crocheted cables on the hat.
I have crocheted this pattern using a I hook and also a J hook. Both times the hat is too short without having to add some additional rows to get the desired length I need for a men’s hat size.
I have found that if I add 3 extra rows in the middle I am at about 7.25” long in length. Then I crochet rows 14-17 (4 rows) for the trim rows. Length is about 8.5” long and fits nicely.
Here is one more hat I crocheted using the pattern and added some camo type yarn for stripes.
I tried two new hat patterns for Warmth for Warriors this last month. Both of these patterns are free from the author’s website. First one I did is the cable & stripes hat by Dianne Hunt. Her blog Cre8tion Crochet has the hat pattern available free. I love the results of this hat pattern!
This second one is called ribbed wonder hat. This pattern calls for the hat to be crocheted with bulky yarn but I crocheted it with worst weight yarn. The free ribbed wonder hat pattern is found at 365 Crochet Knit Too site.
This hat pattern is worked by crocheting in the back loops to create a knit-look ribbing. As I said, I used worst wool for my hat. I started with chaining 45 stitches using an I hook for 44 rows. The hat is a bit tight on my head so next time I think I will do 46 rows but I do crocheting tightly. So if you use worst weight yarn, check your fit before fastening off. My length was fine at 8 inches with the folded cuff as shown above.
I am busy crocheting more mini Christmas stockings for Warmth for Warriors. We have an unofficial goal for 2019 of 4,000 stockings. We just received an update from Warmth for Warriors headquarters that they have received 2,653 stockings so far this year.
Here is a new twist on the cuffed mini Christmas stocking pattern but with stripes. Here is the version with just 2 stripes on the upper leg portion. For this option, crochet 2 full rows after the chain 12 for upper leg with the main color, then carry yarn and crochet 2 rows twice in the stripe color for a total of 10 rows. The top left stocking, does not have 2 full rows after the chain 12 and that is why it doesn’t look like the others.
For the 2-stripe option, I think the stocking looks better without adding the final trim row as written in the original pattern. Just fold over the cuff and add the hanging loop. Of course, you can always crochet whatever style and trim you’d like.
Next shown top left is a same cuffed stocking pattern but where you change yarn colors every 2 rows. Again just carry the yarn inside the stocking that you are not using. This makes for less knots or ends to weave under.
Last on the top right is a patriotic red, white, and blue stocking. Crochet this stocking all in red until the last 6 rows of the upper leg portion. Then add white yarn for 3 rows and end with 3 rows of blue for a cute little 6 inch patriotic Christmas stocking.
Please help us make our goal of 4,000 mini Christmas stockings for the troops this year. The deadline for shipping stockings is November 1 so headquarters has enough time to stuff the stockings with little goodies for shipment to the troops for Christmas. If you need any more information concerning the stocking drive,
Recent Comments